At this year’s IKAR the conclusion of beacon trials with modern digital beacons is that the probe phase of search and rescue should be skipped if the victim is shown as less than 1m from the surface. Instead shovelling should begin immediately a fix is reached with the beacon, you can still mark the spot with a probe.

http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/0974-ikar-2009-zermatt1/

The idea is that getting a fine location on the victim is wasting valuable shovelling time for an extra 50cm of precision that will make little difference in the overall scheme of things.

Anyone got any views on this information?

Bear in mind in French accidents very few victims buried under 1m of snow survive anyway.